1997
was Hollyoaks's third year of production. This year, Hollyoaks received it's first award nomination - "Most Popular Children's Programme" at the National Television Awards. Events Hollyoaks events and Ollie Benson are seriously injured in a car accident.]] *20th January - First appearance of Helen Cunningham. *27th February - Michael St. John Thomas takes Jude Cunningham and Maddie Parker hostage, where he leads them to a roof where he tries to push Jude off. However, Jude pushes him off instead and Michael falls to his death. (Final appearance of the character) *17th March - Susi Harrison's father dies from a massive cardiac arrest. Bazz is homophobically attacked. *June - Kurt Benson is found not guilty on the charges of actual bodily harm and attempted murder of Spike. *11th August - Julie Matthews jilts Tony Hutchinson at the altar after realising she doesn't actually love him. Tony is thrilled as he was going to do the same. Jude Cunningham accidentally sets fire to Maddie Parker's flat. *29th September - Lee Stanley and Ollie Benson are seriously injured when Lee flips the car whilst driving at speed. *6th October - Lee Stanley and Ollie Benson die of their injuries sustained in the crash. (Final appearance of the characters) *8th October -Zack Loveday is born. *6th November - Kate Patrick arrives in the village. (First appearance of the character) *22nd December - On Christmas Day, Jambo Bolton proposes to Dawn Cunningham on a boat ride, which she accepts. However, she dies from leukiaemia shortly afterwards. Cindy Cunningham gives birth to the daughter of her and her late boyfriend Lee Stanley, who she names Holly Cunningham. (Last appearance of Dawn until 2008 and first appearance of Holly) Real life events *20th June - Theo Graham (Hunter McQueen) is born. *24th June - Kassius Nelson (Jade Albright) is born. *11th July - Persephone Swales-Dawson (Nico Blake) is born. Major Storylines Benson family *Kurt Benson defended his girlfriend, Ruth Osborne, against builder Spike, who was harassing Ruth. Kurt accidentally pushed Spike off the scaffolding, and he was injured when he fell on a spike. Kurt was arrested and charged with attempted murder. *Kurt Benson, believing that nobody believed that he didn't intend to hurt Spike, decided to flee to Hull with Ruth Osborne in pursuit. There, Kurt and Ruth decided to marry. *Ollie Benson tried to comfort his friend, Lee Stanley, after he was rejected by Cindy Cunningham, who was pregnant with his child. Lee began drinking heavily and Ollie got into the car, driven by a drunk Lee. Tony Hutchinson and Bazil McCourtey tried to get Lee to pull over, but to no avail and a speeding Lee flipped the car to avoid a reversing lorry, smashing through the lorry's contents and causing the car to flip upside down, only to hit a concrete block and roll back onto four wheels. Ollie and Stan died of their injuries in hospital a week later. Cunningham family *Dawn Cunningham was contacted by her daughter, Bethany Cunningham, whom she had put up for adoption after her birth in 1991. Bethany had kidney failure and Dawn was not a match, so she asked Bethany's father - revealing him to be Jack Osborne. Jack didn't know about Bethany, but he was a match. *Jude Cunningham and her friend, Maddie Parker, were kidnapped by their ex-boyfriend, Michael St. John Thomas and a siege ensued. Michael attempted to throw Jude off the roof, but was distracted by Maddie who was wearing the wedding dress that Michael bought her. Jude freed herself of Michael's clutches, pushing him off the roof in the process - the fall killing him. *Angela Williams struggled with the departure of her husband, Terry, and was diagnosed with breast cancer. *Jude Cunningham struggled to cope with the events surrounding the siege and drunkenly knocked over a candle in Maddie Parker's flat, causing a fire. Despite initially being trapped, the pair managed to make it out alive. *Dawn Cunningham began a relationship with Jambo Bolton, but was diagnosed with leukemia. On Christmas Day, Jambo proposed to Dawn on a boat ride and she accepted, but passed away in Jambo's arms shortly afterwards. *Cindy Cunningham discovered that she was pregnant after sleeping with Lee Stanley, but kept the birth secret after Dawn's leukemia diagnosis. She gave birth to baby Holly Cunningham on Christmas Day and abandoned her at the nearby hospital. Osborne/Patrick family *The family fell apart upon the revelation that Jack Osborne was the father of Bethany Cunningham. Celia Osborne filed for divorce and decided to move to the United States, taking Darren Osborne with her. *Jack Osborne met Jill Patrick, whom he hired as a barmaid at The Dog in the Pond. The pair began a relationship and she moved herself as well as her three children, Kate, Sol and Gina Patrick into 1 Stockton Lane. Richardson family *Lewis Richardson's mother, Helen, and sister, Mandy, struggled to live with Helen's abusive husband and Lewis and Mandy's father, Dennis Richardson, and increasingly started to spend more time in Lewis's flat. Other characters *Tony Hutchinson and Julie Matthews got engaged, but whilst walking down the aisle, Julie realised that she couldn't marry Tony and ran out. Tony was thrilled as he was also having second thoughts. *Maddie Parker became extremely paranoid over her safety following the siege, installing several locks onto the front door and refusing to leave the flat. She and Jude Cunningham were nearly killed when Jude drunkenly knocked a candle over, starting a fire. They managed to escape but Maddie decided to move back with her mother upon realising that there were too many bad memories for her to remain in the village. *After the car accident in November 1996, Carol Groves began believing that she was psychic and had the ability to read people's auras. Cast Changes *The role of Max Cunningham was recast, with Matt Littler taking over from Ben Sheriff. Debuts See also: Category:1997 debuts. Returns None Departures See also: Category:1997 departures. Episodes See also: Category:1997 episodes. See also *Category:1997 minor characters *Category:1997 births *Category:1997 marriages *Category:1997 deaths Category:1990s Category:1997